Check out the effects of a limestone cliff face on the front end of a Passat.

Background

After suddenly finding myself in the market for another car in late 2000, I became the new owner of a 1998 Volkswagen Passat GLS. I immediately began to tear into the car to begin to make it "mine", a process made all the easier because the car was purchased with 33k miles on the odometer, and was just waiting for someone to come along and give it a scheduled tune-up.

Far too much reading on the web, and a few weeks later the car was in basically new condition once again. As a gesture of thanks to the many people who've contributed their invaluable advice and experience all around the web, I've put online some of what I've personally learned and gone through.

Update:

The '98 sacrificed itself to keep me from being a splatter on a cliff wall, so the long term effects of changing ATF can't be tested.
I immediately hunted down a 2000 Passat (the best year of the B5 model, IMHO) and switched to a manual transmission.

If you're thinking of switching to a manual transmission and are worried that it's too much trouble - go for it. When I need a quick pick-me-up, the manual tranny puts a smile on my face everytime. Changing gears quickly becomes second nature - I rarely have to think about
how I'm shifting. Another benefit is that fifth gear became a usuable gear beyond just overdrive - the tip tranny was reluctant in fifth,
but the manual happily tracks the throttle.